Do You Know This Kitten?
by Carrot-Bunny
Summary: When a kitten falls out of a tree into the Marauders' laps, Peter decides to help return it to its owner. Involves killer felines and loose ties. R/R.


It was a lovely spring afternoon in the Hogwarts grounds, where most of the student population was spending their Saturday afternoon. Under a tree by the Black Lake were four boys, each absorbed in his activity. The first was dozing off on his back while lying against the roots of the tree, the second had his nose buried in a book, the third was ruffling his already messy hair while sending glances at a group of girls sitting on the grass while chatting not far away, and the fourth was fiddling with his tie which seemed to refuse to hang neatly around his neck. A regular Saturday afternoon, really, until something fell out of the tree.

That something landed right on top of the first boy's stomach, causing him to wake up suddenly and yell "Run for your lives!" while flinging his arms about madly, sending the unknown object to fly off him and onto the second boy's book, sending it crashing down in a flurry of pages. The startled book-reader fell backwards in surprise right onto his messy-haired friend, whose attention was drawn away from the group of girls as he held out an arm to cushion his fall onto the ground, but only succeeded in grabbing the fourth boy's tie and nearly strangling him in the process as he brought him falling down as well.

"James, let go of me!" the boy cried as he got up from where he had fallen and adjusted his tie so it wouldn't put him in risk of getting killed again. He then noticed a mass of fur on his friend's collapsed book and bent over to take a closer look. "Hey, it's a kitten!"

The previously dozing boy's eyes immediately widened in horror. "Oh no, if it's Marlene McKinnon's killer feline again I'm running for cover…"

"Relax Sirius, McKinnon's cat is black with white patches and this one is grey with stripes." The reading boy gently picked up the kitten and placed it on the grass before picking up his book with its crumpled pages. He smoothed out the pages a little before closing the book and placing it aside.

James pushed his crooked glasses up the bridge of his nose. "So why did it just fall out of a tree?"

"Dunno. Maybe it climbed up there and couldn't get down, so it decided to just jump off. Probably it thought Sirius's stomach made a nice landing spot."

"Very funny, Remus. I got nothing against kittens, but landing on me when I'm asleep is definitely not nice. Besides, what's it doing up a tree?"

"Maybe it ran away from its owner and decided to roam the school grounds?" the boy who almost got strangled suggested.

"As good an explanation as any, Pete. But we can't just leave it here alone, right? I mean, we have to try and find its owner." James pointed out.

"You do that. Me, I think I'm going to sneak something from the kitchens. That kitten may not seem very heavy, but it knocked the air out of my stomach just now when it landed. I need something to fill me up again. See ya." With that, Sirius left the other three and headed back to the castle.

"What's with Padfoot? I mean, didn't we just eat lunch some time ago? How much air can a kitten knock out of you anyway?"

"Actually James, it's around four o'clock now," Remus said as he glanced at his watch.

James clapped a hand to his forehead. "Four o'clock already? Damn, I have Quidditch practice right now! I gotta run!" And he also rushed off towards the school.

"Well, I'm going to find a place where I can read my book in peace. You need some help with that kitten, Peter?"

"No, I think I'm fine. You go read your book." Peter picked up the kitten and held it carefully in his arms as he walked back to the school, leaving his friend to tuck his book under one arm and wander off to find a better reading spot. The kitten meowed as it lay in the boy's arms, and then playfully pawed his tie which was hanging crookedly under his collar.

"Please don't do that, I'm trying my best to tie it properly so I don't get strangled again." Peter balanced the kitten on one arm as he adjusted his tie with the other so it was out of the animal's reach.

"Why would you get strangled, Peter?" He turned around to see a red-haired girl walking towards him, a few of her friends following behind her.

"Oh, hi Lily. It's a long story; something to do with James accidentally grabbing my tie while falling backwards."

"Really. Aw, that kitten is cute! Is it yours?" Lily asked as she pointed at the kitten in Peter's arms.

"No, it fell out of a tree. I think it ran away from its owner. Do you know anyone who owns a kitten?"

"Well, there's Marlene, but I know she usually keeps her kitten in our room because it loves to scratch a lot. Remember the one time Sirius Black somehow sneaked into the girls' dormitory only to meet it by accident?"

"How could I forget? He looked like he'd met an enraged tiger with razor-sharp claws afterwards." Just then the kitten meowed loudly, getting the two's attention.

"I think the little thing's hungry. Maybe you could try giving it some milk. I have to go now; I still have some homework to do. See you later." Lily then left with her friends, and Peter held the kitten firmly as he headed down a staircase leading down below the ground floor.

…

The door of the dormitory opened as Peter entered with a kitten in one arm and a saucer of milk in the other. He set the saucer of milk on the nearest bed and deposited the kitten right beside it, watching as the little feline lapped up the milk happily. He then turned around at the sound of the door opening again and Remus entering the room with his book. "Finally got some reading done?"

"Yep. You have no idea how much reading I can do without Sirius and James around. Speaking of which," he glanced at the kitten drinking its milk on the bed, "that's Sirius's bed your kitten's sitting on. I don't know if he'd like a kitten on his bed."

"Well, seeing as he dumps pretty much everything on his bed, I'm sure he won't mind one more kitten." Peter gestured at the assortment of parchment and clothing the kitten was sitting on.

Just then James and Sirius entered the room, the former holding his broomstick while arguing with his best friend. "I think I carried out the Wronski Feint pretty well, thank you very much."

"Yeah, well, you escaped being flattened on the ground by just this much." Sirius held his thumb and forefinger apart by barely an inch, and then he suddenly noticed the kitten happily lapping up its milk on his bed. With a shriek of horror he dived for the bed and pulled a few pieces of parchment from under the little animal, causing it to fall headfirst into the saucer of milk.

"Sirius, what are you doing?" Peter picked up the soaking kitten and tried to dry off the milk in its fur with a large handkerchief lying on his bed.

"Your kitten just messed up my Transfiguration homework!" Sirius held up the crumpled pieces of parchment with a look of horror on his face.

Remus raised an eyebrow. "That's your homework? All I see is some illegible handwriting and a few blotches of ink. If you hand that in to Professor McGonagall, she's going to kill you."

"Nonsense! My Minnie will never dream of killing me! Besides, I stayed up all night working on this, you know!"

"Yeah, that explains the handwriting, you were in a half-asleep state! Some work you've done."

"I think it's just fine!"

"_I_ think you're in for another detention!"

"Look at them, arguing like a married couple." James shook his head as he put away his broomstick. "Well Pete, I'm heading to the common room. I just saw Evans there with some of her friends, maybe she's feeling amicable today. Want to come, or do you want to watch them quarrel?"

"Nah, I'll stay." Peter watched as James left the room to try and talk to Lily again, probably without much luck. He sighed as he scratched the kitten's head, making it purr. "I guess you and me are the only sane ones in here now."

…

Peter got used to seeing the kitten sleeping in his bed or bounding around the dormitory every time he came back from classes. He rather liked the kitten, and he envied its owner. His mum never let him keep pets around the house, although he had always wanted one for himself. He only wished the kitten belonged to him, though he might have to teach it not to mess around with his tie. It seemed unable to resist pawing the article of clothing any chance it got, and it could often be seen dragging the tie around the room during weekends when he didn't have to wear it.

He did try asking around whether anyone had lost a kitten. Most of the answers he got were no, with a few snide comments from the Slytherins, "What's wrong, Pettigrew? Found someone's kitty? Aw, do you cuddle with him in bed every night?"

"Just ignore them," Remus said as they passed by a couple of fifth-year Slytherins making purring noises and laughing. "They're just up to no good."

"Like I don't know that." Peter stopped in front of the Fat Lady's portrait and gave the password before they entered the Gryffindor common room and headed up the stairs to the boys' dormitory. They entered the room only to find it in a mess, with James and Sirius crouched under one of the beds. "What's going on here?" Remus cried as he took in the disastrous state of the whole room.

"Found it!" James pulled out the Invisibility Cloak triumphantly from underneath the bed while beaming happily. Sirius resurfaced as well, grinning. "Man, who knew looking for an invisible cloak was so hard?"

"Why are you looking for the Cloak again?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"No reason. Next time though, you'd better keep your stuff properly James. You never know if you might need it in a hurry. We'll just be off now, see you guys later." Sirius waved as he and James turned to leave.

"Wait! Where's the kitten?" Peter had just scanned the vicinity and found no sign of the little animal. He was now trying to clear up some of the mess on his bed, searching frantically for the kitten under the assortment of items piled up.

"Dunno. Maybe it just walked out just now. We didn't shut the door."

Peter stopped and stared at Sirius. "You left the door open?!"

"Well, we just forgot to close it. No big deal," Sirius shrugged.

"No big deal?! How are we going to find it and return it to its owner now? After asking around whether anyone's lost a kitten, how am I supposed to say I lost it?" Peter sat down on his bed with a plop.

James cocked his head to one side. "You really like that kitten, don't you?" He shrugged as well. "Well, it's not like you could do anything about it. You can't go searching the entire castle for a missing kitten, that would be silly. So unless you can somehow magically summon it out of thin air, I don't think it's going to come back."

Peter's head suddenly lifted. "That's it! I'll just Summon the kitten!" He stood up and walked to the open door, then lifted his wand and cleared his throat. "_Accio kitten_!"

A shrieking mess of fur flew into Peter's arms, but when he held it up he noticed it was not the kitten, but another cat with black fur and white patches. Sirius's eyes widened. "Run! It's McKinnon's murderer cat!" He bolted for the door but bumped into Peter, causing the two of them to fall to the floor with the cat on top of them. The cat's shrieks mingled with the two boys' terrified screams could be heard from the common room, where the rest of Gryffindor House wondered what on earth were the Marauders up to this time.

…

The next morning, Peter sat down at breakfast with visible scratch marks on his face and his tie missing, for it seemed that the kitten had been dragging his tie with it as well when it ran away. He shuddered to think what Professor McGonagall would do if she found out about the missing tie, but there was nothing he could do about it, since he didn't have a spare tie.

Sirius sat down beside him, his face also bearing marks made by Marlene McKinnon's deadly cat. "Don't worry mate, maybe Minnie's sick today and couldn't come to class."

"Yeah, she'll skip class the day I become Minister of Magic and James marries Lily."

"Hey, it could happen! Evans can't say no to me forever," James said as he sat down from across them, Remus by his side. "And don't worry about McGonagall, I'm sure she'll let you off if you explain what happened."

"Oh yeah? You think so? 'I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall, but there was this lost kitten who fell out of a tree and I was going to return it to its owner but it ran away with my tie.' I might as well go make myself a new tie with some paint and an old bedsheet."

"Hey, there's an idea."

"No James, I was just joking." Peter sighed as he buttered his toast. "And I still don't know where the kitten went."

"You still thinking about that kitten? If I were you, I would be spending my time making up a good cover story for my missing tie." Sirius suddenly noticed a trio of first-year Gryffindors staring at them from down the table. 'Oi, what you're looking at?"

The three little girls seemed startled, then they nodded to each other before getting up and walking towards the Marauders. The one in front was holding a tie in one arm, and in the other she held a little grey kitten with stripes. "Um, which one of you is Peter Pettigrew?" she asked timidly.

Peter's eyes widened. "You're the kitten's owner?"

The girl held out the tie. "Here. My kitten ran away a few days ago, and I found it in the common room yesterday dragging your tie with it. I guess you're the one who helped me take care of my kitten this whole time?"

"Um, yeah. It was no big deal." Peter took his tie from the girl's hand and glanced at the name tag on it before tying it around his neck, where it finally hung neatly.

"Thank you so much for taking care of Tibby! I was so worried when he ran away, but I didn't know how to start looking for him. I'm glad he's back safe now!" the girl gushed happily.

Peter smiled. "You're welcome. But you probably have to watch him more closely now. You don't want him to run away again, don't you?"

The girl nodded. "Thanks again!" she called before skipping away with her friends.

Sirius let out a relieved sigh. "Great, the kitten's back with its owner and you've got your tie back. All's well that ends well."

Peter nodded as he went back to buttering his toast, his mood a lot more cheerful. "Yeah, all's well that ends well."

_**Dedicated to Peter Pettigrew, the Marauder who would be the first to help a lost kitten (at least in my opinion).**_

**A/N: Well? Was it good? Bad? Horrible? I've never tried writing such a long Marauder fanfic, and this is my first time writing a story with Peter as the main character, so if you could point out where I wrote them out of character or any illogical mistakes it would be much appreciated! Thanks!**


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